Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff you missed in history class from how
Speaker 1: Stuff Works dot com. Hello and welcome to the podcast.
Speaker 1: I'm editor Candice Gibson, joined to day by the ever
Speaker 1: valiant and ever noble and true Sir Josh Clark. Hey, Cannie,
Speaker 1: thank you, thank you for nighting me just now. Very welcome.
Speaker 1: It's like the third time this month. I know, I'm
Speaker 1: really trying to get on josh Is good side. You've
Speaker 1: just been so so darn chivalrous and nice. I just
Speaker 1: had to do something, you know, quid pro quo. The
Speaker 1: cape over the puddle is what you're referring to. And
Speaker 1: you held a door for me about two weeks. Again,
Speaker 1: that's true. I guess I have been kind of chivalrous
Speaker 1: king indeed, and you know we could use a little
Speaker 1: bit more of that in our daily lives. I'm not
Speaker 1: saying we all have to go around whipping out swords
Speaker 1: from stones like my favorite legend of all time, King Arthur.
Speaker 1: But there are certain principles and values from the Artherurian
Speaker 1: legend that I like to apply to my daily life. Well,
Speaker 1: they're actually kind of universal, they are there. What are
Speaker 1: these qualities? Again? We have honor and encourage um. Uh,
Speaker 1: maybe not stealing the king's wife. That's a good thing.
Speaker 1: It's a nice one too. You know. What's what's odd
Speaker 1: is that UM a lot of these these um parts
Speaker 1: of chivalry are a lot of the values that fall
Speaker 1: under the umbrella of chivalry. Also UM kind of jive
Speaker 1: with UM like Christian values as well. They do kind
Speaker 1: of which is kind of significant because I remember part
Speaker 1: of the Eutherian legend is that UM, when England needs
Speaker 1: the most, Arthur will rise from the dead to come
Speaker 1: back to save it. Which it's an awful lot like
Speaker 1: another person, who is that? I know who you're hinting at.
Speaker 1: Jesus you did know, wow, I I did, And you
Speaker 1: know it's there's a very good reason that it sounds
Speaker 1: a lot like Christian stories. And that's because when the
Speaker 1: legend of Arthur was first put on paper, it was
Speaker 1: back with Jeffrey of Monmouth. He started penning it down
Speaker 1: back in the yeah as well, centuring the eleven hundred,
Speaker 1: and then after Jeffrey of Monmouth, Christian Christian of Troy
Speaker 1: or kretin Deta he picked it up and penned his
Speaker 1: own version. And after Kretindi there was the Vulgate cycle,
Speaker 1: and this was a version of the legend of Arthur
Speaker 1: that married the story with very Christian concepts. And then
Speaker 1: after that version was written, Sir Thomas Mallory adopted that
Speaker 1: and created his very famous, very well reputed and known
Speaker 1: Lemore d'Arthur or The Death of Arthur, and that was
Speaker 1: the version that everyone was working from. So if there's
Speaker 1: certain principles of Christianity that seemed to give at the
Speaker 1: Artherian legend, that's why. Well, yeah, I think it was
Speaker 1: kind of the two were married together because about the
Speaker 1: time that it was being put to paper, Christianity was
Speaker 1: being introduced to Western Europe. You know, Prior to this time,
Speaker 1: peasants had really no reason to toil, and then all
Speaker 1: of a sudden they have Christianity, which says, uh, you know,
Speaker 1: the harder you work on earth, of the the worshier
Speaker 1: lot on earth, the better it is in heaven. All
Speaker 1: of a sudden they toil a little harder in the
Speaker 1: feudal you know, kings were saying keep at it, you know,
Speaker 1: thanks a lot. So it's it makes a lot of
Speaker 1: sense that that this national hero would be married with
Speaker 1: those same kind of Christian values. As well, And just
Speaker 1: to give you a little background on this national hero.
Speaker 1: I know you probably have some ideas of who Arthur was,
Speaker 1: whether you see him as Sean Connery or the very skinny,
Speaker 1: scrawny prepubiscent cartoon from Disney Sword and Stone. My preferred
Speaker 1: version really, um, but Arthur. You know, it's really hard
Speaker 1: to tell the story of Arthur because there's so many
Speaker 1: disparate versions, but pretty much, um, he was a young
Speaker 1: lad growing up in England at a time when it
Speaker 1: had recently been invaded and their former leader had been dethroned,
Speaker 1: and he saw a sword and a stone, he pulled
Speaker 1: it out, and by virtue of that he became king
Speaker 1: because that was ex Caliber. Indeed, indeed, other versions of
Speaker 1: this story have the Lady of the Light handing him
Speaker 1: the sword and telling him that he was to rule
Speaker 1: the country. So from there he took his trustee sword
Speaker 1: ex Caliber, and built the mighty Fortress Camelot as stronghold
Speaker 1: for his for his kingdom. And once inside he started
Speaker 1: devising a very innovative and egalitarian concept called the round table.
Speaker 1: And this really was pretty radical because before there had
Speaker 1: always been positions of authority within the knighthood. And you know,
Speaker 1: someone was always top night and somebody wasn't sort of
Speaker 1: bottom wrong. But with Arthur, everyone was equal. It was
Speaker 1: a round table round. It was a good way to lead,
Speaker 1: it was. And because he was such a good leader,
Speaker 1: everybody kind of wants a piece of him, you know,
Speaker 1: the same way that the same way that the US
Speaker 1: wants to claim Posh. And yet she still has British roots.
Speaker 1: Everyone wants to say she's our girl. Everyone said, thought
Speaker 1: about Arthur, the British, the Welsh, well, actually the British
Speaker 1: kind of um. One could make a case the British
Speaker 1: Pilford Arthur um and propped him up as a as
Speaker 1: a a poster boy for their their national values, you
Speaker 1: know things that uh. He he was a famous figure
Speaker 1: that um conquered evil and united you know that this
Speaker 1: land wherever the land actually was during you know his time,
Speaker 1: um and lead people out of this darkness and out
Speaker 1: of danger and fear. Um. And he wasn't necessarily English.
Speaker 1: The Welsh, on the other hand, seemed to be perfectly
Speaker 1: content with Arthur remaining English. There's a guy out there
Speaker 1: who's found some evidence that if Arthur did live, he
Speaker 1: was a Welshman, and the Welsh aren't really doing a
Speaker 1: whole lot to you know, pick up that gauntlet and
Speaker 1: run with it. You know, it's funny that's evidence of
Speaker 1: Arthur's existence. It's pretty touchy because if this is a
Speaker 1: matter of national pride and people do want a piece
Speaker 1: of Arthur, what they need is proof, and they're turning
Speaker 1: to these supposed historical relics and they're saying, here it is,
Speaker 1: here's proof that Arthur existed. And you were asking me
Speaker 1: about one of these earlier, the round table you were
Speaker 1: talking about it supposedly is hanging in a castle. Well,
Speaker 1: there is a round table hanging in a castle in
Speaker 1: England and it was supposedly Arthur. So I mean, wouldn't
Speaker 1: that prove that, you know, he was an actual person
Speaker 1: when they take him out of the realm of fiction
Speaker 1: and put him into the room effect, Well, it would,
Speaker 1: except for one tiny hitch. It's not authentic, so it's
Speaker 1: fiction that would make it fiction. And a lot of
Speaker 1: these historical relics and dates come from Thomas Mallory because
Speaker 1: again he was the one who put this into context
Speaker 1: and actually named landmarks in England. And you know pretty
Speaker 1: much that Arthur was here, and that wasn't the case.
Speaker 1: And in fact, the place that he claimed was Arthur's
Speaker 1: birthplace Tentacle Castle, that wasn't built until the eleven hundreds,
Speaker 1: and that was centuries after Arthur was supposed to have lived.
Speaker 1: And a lot of people think now that the reason
Speaker 1: he named that place is because it was affiliated with
Speaker 1: his patron, who commissioned his work of literature. There you go,
Speaker 1: And as for the round table in question, well here's
Speaker 1: where your bubble is really going to be burst. Well, um,
Speaker 1: some scholars carbon dated it and it only dated back
Speaker 1: to Yeah. Yeah, so now they're starting to believe that
Speaker 1: it was commissioned by Henry the eighth because people were
Speaker 1: really fascinated by the Artherian legend and medieval culture and
Speaker 1: he wanted a replica. Yeah, it's understandable. I could not
Speaker 1: feel more disillusioned right now. But um, at least I'm
Speaker 1: still at night. Well that is true, that is true. Well, um,
Speaker 1: I would help scrape you up. I have a nice
Speaker 1: story for you. It's called How King Arthur Worked, and
Speaker 1: you can read all about it on how stuff works
Speaker 1: dot com. For moral this than thousands of other topics
Speaker 1: because at how stuff Works dot com. Let us know
Speaker 1: what you think. Send an email to podcast at how
Speaker 1: stuff Works dot com. H